Warren Gross's blog

The news concerning the two new Masters programs for Monroe are unsettling. This institution founded in 1933 as essentially an entry level business skills school has come a long way and now we see a college with something over 2,250 or so students, having developed two Masters programs; one an MS and the other, an MBA.

The temptation to discuss its place in the academic community is almost overwhelming, but I can understand and appreciate the feelings that young students from our poorer and middle class populations, wanting, perhaps even needing a higher education. On that note, perhaps the leadership of this small private for profit school will reach develop in accordance with what it has stated.... graduates will master the "challenges and opportunities unique to urban communities around the globe and apply learning and research to make a positive impact."

Well, that is a tad strong for a school currently rated 46.6, and ranked 188th according to the website, State University.Com. You can check this out for yourself --- not so highly regarded academically in New York State and I could not find even a reference or rating for Monroe in the U.S. News and World Report.

You may be interested in the esteem E.L. Doctorow's Opt Ed column in the Daily News today on the NYU Expansion downtown.

I leave it up to you for your reflections and comments.

The good Doctorow resides in north New Rochelle and is justly considered a literary lion.

He has, to my knowledge, never taken a positiion on Iona or Monroe expansion and I have never read of any position on opening up all of New Rochelle for expansion or growth which is, of course, proper frm the college's strategic plan.

Doctorw is a professor at NYU and speaks of the views of the what appeara to be a sizable number of faculty members.

I will not comment beyond that point. Perhaps you will reflect and offer your comments.

Surely you are impacted by the daily barrage of horror and madness in the world and nation. We see it daily; we see the overweight little fat girl taunting the camera at McCarron pool in New York City when she and 3 to 4 cowardly friends broke a 13 year old girl's nose for no reason. We wonder why some young bastards would play a game where they would sucker punch someone; likely old or infirm. This time it caused a loss of life.

That is within a 3 mile radius; a tip of the icebag. It happens with regularity all over and now, the absolute horrific theater massacre. Will it end in the USA, Mexico, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia.... all over?

Not likely! The reasons are not too difficult to fathom. We have lost all of our safety valves. Families are fractionalized, the economy suffers while the pinheads debate Bain or some other past irrelevancy like Obama's social group in Chicago.

I am an independent voter; fiscally conservative, somewhat moderate even libertarian in other matters. I am sickened by the daily displays of excesses in ideological behavior, the presumptive power of the Internet, Social Media, and especially cable news. We have become an angry nation, lacking compassion, basic critical thinking skills, and cannot digest even the most basic ideas of how our spoiled, selfish selves, uber consumers and international moral authorities, have dominated the landscape for too many recent generations.

I am weary of my own holier than thou pronouncements and critiques of people in office who perhaps are no better than they can or even should be. I mean who the hell can Noam look up to in this day and age -- surely not Barack Obama and our sons and daughters with their seemingly endless series of "wants" be it in modern technology or off the wall priced sneakers, worship where they are directed toward by their parents, music and sports heroes, and so....

If you read about my gaffe concerning Naomi Brickell, I will probably have trouble making sense of impact on this brief entry.

I recall reading the words of Laurence Tribe recently concerning the Obama/Roberts relationship on the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act. As you may know Tribe is an esteemed legal mind on the Harvard Law School Faculty and taught both Obama and Roberts.

Tribe says that "one guiding value; a genuine belief that pragmatism and even compromise can coexist with principle" is critical to both men and by extrapolation of his words, to society.

The USA Today informs us that the top 50 best selling books today consist of 48 fiction and only 2 non-fiction. More interesting to me is that in the top ten, 9 of the authors are women, 1 a man and, E.L. James has four of the best selling 10 while Suzanne Collins trails closely with three.

Perhaps girls do just wanna have fun, but the message is surely somewhat more than titillation. If you see what pops up most frequently on U Tube, top music downloads and Google searches, something begins to suggest a more prominent theme. Even searching the Talk of the Sound results you will see that sex, violence, crime and misdemeanors are going to do a hell of a lot better than the other reads.

Yet, it has always been this way to some degree and it suggests to me that escapism is more closely connected to avoidance and perhaps even apathy than we might have thought before.

I want to share with you some points I intend to make on July 10 to the Council regarding planning in general and the 1996 Comprehensive Plan in particular.

Today is yet another sad and all too familiar day regarding the Hastie situation in the School Board. I bring this up only from the point of view that the greater majority of citizens have delegated their rights and responsibilities to a small number of community members and this has not turned out well for us as a rule.

It is particularly fitting as we approach Independence Day to recall the sacrifices made by so many Americans in the service of our country. It doesn't end there -- so many members of our community have more than a passing knowledge or involvement in the horrors brought about by the holocaust, the Pearl Harbor aggression, and more recently, the horrific affront caused by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and elsewhere.

While one swallow does not a summer make, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of thinking I saw last night from this group on Channel 75.

Yes, there are problems endemic in groups of these sorts on lack of focus, wandering, and surely there are issues concerning the roles, responsibilities and relationships among City Administration, Planning, Zoning Boards, community groups, and mostly, City Council.

But, the Planning Board is very well led; I believe his name is Douglas Hocking and he is very smart, focused, and a gentleman.

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I was having a few rounds with a friend of mine who is kind of digusted with his life and especially, his surroundings. Nothing new about that in 2012. I have many a day when I wonder what the hell has become of my country, my city and especially my appearance.

But my friend was particularly sour this evening. He spoke about his financial situation, the soaring crime rate, what he labeled "reverse racism" and the Mets losing streak. Nothing new about the latter either.

I got home and began to think about what the problems were from his end, but mostly from my own. I can be a bit of a pollyanna at times; subtituting a hopeful air for a situation calling either for an extended middle finger or better, just joining the herd.

The next morning I was taking a bus downtown and at the stop, three young black kids wearing the uniforms of the Rye Beach recreational area were waiting for their bus. They seemed bright, happy, and Lord be praised, they were a few of the lucky kids who found work.

The news concerning the two new Masters programs for Monroe are unsettling. This institution founded in 1933 as essentially an entry level business skills school has come a long way and now we see a college with something over 2,250 or so students, having developed two Masters programs; one an MS and the other, an MBA.

The temptation to discuss its place in the academic community is almost overwhelming, but I can understand and appreciate the feelings that young students from our poorer and middle class populations, wanting, perhaps even needing a higher education. On that note, perhaps the leadership of this small private for profit school will reach develop in accordance with what it has stated.... graduates will master the "challenges and opportunities unique to urban communities around the globe and apply learning and research to make a positive impact."

Well, that is a tad strong for a school currently rated 46.6, and ranked 188th according to the website, State University.Com. You can check this out for yourself --- not so highly regarded academically in New York State and I could not find even a reference or rating for Monroe in the U.S. News and World Report.

You may be interested in the esteem E.L. Doctorow's Opt Ed column in the Daily News today on the NYU Expansion downtown.

I leave it up to you for your reflections and comments.

The good Doctorow resides in north New Rochelle and is justly considered a literary lion.

He has, to my knowledge, never taken a positiion on Iona or Monroe expansion and I have never read of any position on opening up all of New Rochelle for expansion or growth which is, of course, proper frm the college's strategic plan.

Doctorw is a professor at NYU and speaks of the views of the what appeara to be a sizable number of faculty members.

I will not comment beyond that point. Perhaps you will reflect and offer your comments.

Surely you are impacted by the daily barrage of horror and madness in the world and nation. We see it daily; we see the overweight little fat girl taunting the camera at McCarron pool in New York City when she and 3 to 4 cowardly friends broke a 13 year old girl's nose for no reason. We wonder why some young bastards would play a game where they would sucker punch someone; likely old or infirm. This time it caused a loss of life.

That is within a 3 mile radius; a tip of the icebag. It happens with regularity all over and now, the absolute horrific theater massacre. Will it end in the USA, Mexico, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia.... all over?

Not likely! The reasons are not too difficult to fathom. We have lost all of our safety valves. Families are fractionalized, the economy suffers while the pinheads debate Bain or some other past irrelevancy like Obama's social group in Chicago.

I am an independent voter; fiscally conservative, somewhat moderate even libertarian in other matters. I am sickened by the daily displays of excesses in ideological behavior, the presumptive power of the Internet, Social Media, and especially cable news. We have become an angry nation, lacking compassion, basic critical thinking skills, and cannot digest even the most basic ideas of how our spoiled, selfish selves, uber consumers and international moral authorities, have dominated the landscape for too many recent generations.

I am weary of my own holier than thou pronouncements and critiques of people in office who perhaps are no better than they can or even should be. I mean who the hell can Noam look up to in this day and age -- surely not Barack Obama and our sons and daughters with their seemingly endless series of "wants" be it in modern technology or off the wall priced sneakers, worship where they are directed toward by their parents, music and sports heroes, and so....

If you read about my gaffe concerning Naomi Brickell, I will probably have trouble making sense of impact on this brief entry.

I recall reading the words of Laurence Tribe recently concerning the Obama/Roberts relationship on the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act. As you may know Tribe is an esteemed legal mind on the Harvard Law School Faculty and taught both Obama and Roberts.

Tribe says that "one guiding value; a genuine belief that pragmatism and even compromise can coexist with principle" is critical to both men and by extrapolation of his words, to society.

The USA Today informs us that the top 50 best selling books today consist of 48 fiction and only 2 non-fiction. More interesting to me is that in the top ten, 9 of the authors are women, 1 a man and, E.L. James has four of the best selling 10 while Suzanne Collins trails closely with three.

Perhaps girls do just wanna have fun, but the message is surely somewhat more than titillation. If you see what pops up most frequently on U Tube, top music downloads and Google searches, something begins to suggest a more prominent theme. Even searching the Talk of the Sound results you will see that sex, violence, crime and misdemeanors are going to do a hell of a lot better than the other reads.

Yet, it has always been this way to some degree and it suggests to me that escapism is more closely connected to avoidance and perhaps even apathy than we might have thought before.